Dr Robert Watson

Welcome.

• Coming to see a psychologist does not mean that you are weak or a failure, in fact recognising that you may need help can take courage and be the first important step to overcoming your problems. There is now abundant research evidence showing that psychological therapies are effective, and so you do not need to soldier on feeling that nothing can be done to change your situation for the better.
• I offer both face to face and online appointments Tuesday to Thursday from 10am to 7pm. 
• I welcome LGBT clients given that I have worked with the LGBT community since I qualified in 2001.

How do I get in touch?

Please feel free to get in touch by phone or email, or book an introductory call, so we can dicuss the practicalties and and what kind of help you are looking for so we can decide whether to arrange an assessment appointment.  I will usually respond the same day if you reach out on my working days - Tuesday to Thursday.  Otherwise it may be one or two days before I can reply.

What happens at a first appointment?

• At this meeting I would ask you about what’s been troubling you as well as try to explore other areas of your life so that I can gain a broad understanding of you and your situation.
• I would also discuss your needs and how best to address them and I would help you decide whether the therapeutic approaches I offer could be useful to you.  
• If you decide to start therapy we would agree on a “therapy plan”. This would detail what we have agreed to work on, the number of sessions, and the obligations we have to each other. Sessions last for fifty minutes. They could be at weekly or fortnightly intervals; it really depends what your needs and wishes are. Therapy is voluntary and you are therefore free to leave therapy at any time.

How I work:

• This depends on what your needs and preferences are, and the best ways of meeting them. Sometimes it makes sense to use one model of therapy to address problems while at other times to draw on several. I most frequently work with people using Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy and Cognitive-Analytic Therapy . 
• At regular intervals during therapy I will ask for your feedback on how useful you are finding therapy, and I also use brief questionnaires to help us understand how well therapy is working for you. This allows us to make any changes we need while we work together to keep your therapy on track. 

 What is Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT)?

• CAT is a collaborative, relational therapy, inviting you to be the observer of your own life and address unhelpful patterns of thinking and acting that repeat in your life.
• CAT enables you to understand the impact of your life to date and to recognise how the helpful and unhelpful ways you relate to others and to yourself often mirror the helpful and unhelpful aspects of your earlier relationships and childhood experiences.
• It can be helpful when you feel trapped by patterns of thinking and acting that on the one hand might feel protective but on the other are harmful or limiting to you in some way.
• CAT is a time-limited therapy; usually between 16 and 20 sessions.  
• CAT is an evidence based therapy, widely used in the NHS and beyond. 
• Read more about CAT in my further information section.  

What is Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)?

• The idea behind Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is that your thinking influences the way you feel and act. We all have our own ways of understanding events around us, and the meaning we give to them can in some situations lead to problems such as anxiety, depression or low self-esteem.
• CBT is collaborative and we would work together to understand the ways you think, identify unhelpful thinking styles that lead to mood problems, and promote more balanced ways of seeing things.
• CBT is a therapy that needs your active participation and it can give you the skills and strategies to overcome your problems and cope more effectively with any future problems that arise.
• An important part of CBT is working on tasks between sessions agreed between us.
• CBT has been shown to be effective for a wide variety of problems. The length of therapy will depend on your circumstances but CBT usually lasts for between 8-16 sessions.

My fees are £90 per session if you are paying for therapy yourself.

I am registered with all major UK health insurance companies like BUPA, and AXA, and my fee is set at £120 per session if you are using your policy to pay for treatment.

Please note my first appointment offered is at 10am and the last 6pm. 

What is Cognitive Analytic Therapy?

Cognitive analytic therapy, also known as CAT, is a talking therapy that mainly focuses on the way we relate to ourselves and to other people.

It is based on the idea that as children we react to difficult situations we find ourselves in and develop strategies to cope with them.  These strategies or patterns are useful and come about to help us cope with difficulties.

CAT sees many of these patterns as necessary for the person's emotional survival in earlier life.  However, we can then continue to use them even when we no longer need them.  Patterns may become unhelpful or self-defeating and lead to difficulties.  We may become stuck in these patterns and come to feel they are now problems themselves.

Examples may be:

• Feeling repeatedly feel let down, hurt or rejected
  experiencing depression, anxiety or low self-esteem
• avoiding things
• struggling to be assertive
• doing things that are harmful or self-defeating as a way to stop feeling overwhelmed by strong feelings

CAT involves working together with a therapist who helps you to:

• identify unhelpful patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving
• make sense of how they developed and why you needed them
• start to develop new more helpful patterns, and
  evelop a better relationship with yourself and others 
• No two people are the same and difficulties start for different reasons.  CAT helps you make sense of your own story in your own circumstances. 
• Therapy is tailored to your individual needs and to your own manageable goals.

What does the therapy involve?

Early sessions:

When you first come to CAT therapy you and your therapist will talk about why you have come.  Together you will gradually build up a picture of your difficulties.  CAT has a strong focus on the therapist working jointly alongside you so that your voice and opinion is heard at every step of the way.

Early therapy sessions will involve telling and hearing your story.  The therapist does not need to know every detail.  What you share will be paced according to what you feel able to manage.

With your therapist you will begin to piece together patterns that keep you feeling stuck in negative cycles of emotions, repeating things you don’t want to over and over again.  You will also be helped to think about how these patterns developed.

Pen and paper aids in early sessions

You may be asked to complete a questionnaire called the Psychotherapy File.  This gives examples of patterns and states of mind people often describe.  You can change the examples given so that they more closely describe the patterns in your own life.  Your therapist will be interested in finding the most accurate description of your own patterns.

You may also be asked to do some tasks between sessions, such as monitoring your mood or behaviour patterns.  This may help you spot patterns in relationships with yourself and other people in your life.  Sometimes the same patterns can arise in therapy, between you and your therapist.  He or she will be interested in noticing when this happens and trying to make sense of it together.

Your reformulation letter:

Once you and your therapist have identified your patterns and how they came about, he or she will write a letter to you.  The letter will describe your story and your patterns, to help you choose what you want to focus on in the therapy.  You can decide if the letter covers everything and makes sense.  The letter is another part of the conversation between you and your therapist. Your therapist will be interested in your thoughts about it.  He or she may invite you to make notes on the letter or write back, especially if things feel hard to say face-to-face.

Your diagram or map:

CAT therapists often also draw diagrams or maps, using words and sometimes images too.  Maps are a visual way of making a summary of the patterns so that it's easier for you recognise when you are in them.

Some therapists begin mapping from the first session, and will involve you in this process.  Others may offer a map later on.

Sometimes a firm diagram is agreed on after the first letter, once you feel more clear together about the patterns you will be working on.

The middle phase of CAT therapy

From this point CAT gives you the space to begin to focus in on two or three patterns you want to change.  Monitoring between sessions and exploring things further during sessions helps you notice when you are using these patterns.

As you become better at spotting them, it can become easier to think about new more helpful patterns.  Your therapist supports you in discovering, and trying out new possibilities for change.

Sometimes there are obstacles in the way and together you can explore ways to get round them.

Ending CAT therapy

CAT is usually a time-limited therapy and the therapist will help you keep the idea of the ending in mind, even from the start of your meetings.  Towards the end of therapy this will be something that you and your therapist think and talk about more.  Your therapist will write and read to you a "good-bye letter", sharing their reflections on the work you have done together at your last session.  They will also invite you to write one too, to exchange at the final session.